New Istanbul Airport open for business

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has inaugurated the first phase of operations at the new Istanbul Airport.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has inaugurated the first phase of operations at the new Istanbul Airport, which, once completed, will be the world's largest airport with a total area of 76.5 million square meters.

Construction is scheduled to procees in four phases. The first phase consists of the 1.4 million m2 main terminal building, two runways, an air traffic control tower and supporting buildings. Once complete, the airport will host flights to more than 300 destinations with an annual passenger capacity more than three times greater than that of Ataturk Airport.

The new facility — located to the north of Istanbul, 35km from the city centre — aims to offer employment to 225,000 people directly and indirectly by 2025. The Istanbul Airport Economic Impact Report prepared in 2016 suggests that the economic value created of airport-related activities in 2025 will be the equivalent of 4.89% of the GNP.

The completion of Phase One, involving the full transfer of services from Istanbul Ataturk Airport to the new Istanbul Airport, is currently scheduled for 30th - 31st December.

The new platform will be 3.5 times three times the size of Pekin Airport and will have the capacity to serve 90 million people initially and 200 million passengers once all the phases are completed. The world's busiest airport, Atlanta Airport, currently serves 104 million passengers per year.